Changes to number 4 bus service timetable from today (Sunday)

 From Sunday 7 January 2018 First have made timetable changes to the 1, 4, 6, 9 (Park & Ride), 11, 66, 66A, so they “are running more reliably”

Download changes to the bus times from the pdf here.

All of the new timetables are linked below and the City of York council have the information to update the stops, so you know what time to catch your bus!

City, University and Park & Ride buses
1  Wigginton – York City Centre – Chapelfields

4  York Clifford Street – Acomb via Foxwood Lane

6  Clifton Moor – University of York via York City Centre

11  Ashley Park – York City Centre – Bishopthorpe

66  York – York Sport Village via Railway Station and the University of York

66a  York – University of York via Lawrence Street

9 Monks Cross – York City Centre* (Park & Ride)
*The main change for the number 9 is that it now serves Sainsbury’s and Aviva from the first bus in the morning.

First announce changes to York bus services

Services 1, 4, 5/5a, 10/10a & X10 affected

old busService 1 – revised timetable
Chapelfields – City Centre – Wigginton
The Sunday afternoon timetable will be revised to provide more even gaps between buses.
An additional Saturday morning journey will be introduced from Wigginton.
An additional journey will be introduced at 2320 from Wigginton to the City Centre.

Service 4 – revised timetable
Acomb – Foxwood Lane – City Centre
Minor timetable changes, with more time allowed between Clifford Street and Station Road, to improve reliability.

Services 5/5A – revised timetable
Strensall – City Centre – Acomb
A revised timetable will be introduced, with some journeys adjusted to run slightly faster, such as the 0655 from Strensall.

An additional Monday to Friday morning peak journey will be introduced from Strensall to the City Centre.

Services 10/10A – revised timetable
Nether Poppleton – City Centre – Stamford Bridge
A revised timetable will be introduced, with improvements to the afternoon peak frequency.

Some duplicated evening journeys will be withdrawn.

Departure times from Piccadilly stop PA will be adjusted to remove clashes with other services.

A slight adjustment will be made to the morning journey past Manor School, to improve arrivals in relation to session times.

Service X10 – service withdrawn
Dunnington – City Centre – Askham Bar
We’re withdrawing this service so the resource can be reinvested to provide more services during peak times.

Revised timetables are available Forthcoming Timetables (click)

 

Revised bus timetables on First web site ………..but still no reliability info

The detailed new bus timetables – which will be introduced on Sunday – can now be viewed on the First web site.

However, the Council continues to refuse to release information about bus service reliability in the City.

bus-stop1

Ironically a meeting is taking place today which talks about the importance of “journey planning”. It seeks to promote increased bus use but develops acute myopia on the issue of service reliability information.

Uncertainty is the single factor most likely to cause potential bus users to instead opt for the car.

The Council in response to the latest Freedom of Information request, says that it has entered into a confidentiality agreement with the local bus companies.

It receives reliability data but the council claims that it is prevented, by the terms of the agreement, from sharing the information with passengers.

Only an annual reliability figure is published and that on an obscure DPT web site. The latest (2011/12) figures suggest that around 80% of York services run on time.

Behind closed doors logo

Incredibly even reliability data on services paid for by the Council taxpayer (around £800,000 is paid out in subsidies each year) is not published.

What has compounded the mistake has been a decision to cease independent checks of service reliability. These would not be covered by the data sharing protocol and could – as happened in the period up to 2011 – be published. Labour stopped the checks shortly after taking office.

The so called data sharing protocol is effectively a restrictive practice. which is to the disadvantage of the taxpayer and bus passenger.

It is likely that – unless more information is offered – that an appeal to the Information Commissioner (and possibly the Ombudsman) may be lodged.

In the mean time the governments Transport Minister is being urged to introduce regulations which require all public transport providers to publish the same quality of service information which rail operators have been forced to do for over a decade.

Over 12 months ago the Minister responsible urged the Council to start providing more quality of service information.